pply a plaster made altogether of Mustard flour to the delicate
skin of young children, or females, because ulcers difficult to heal
may be the result, or even gangrenous destruction of the deeper skin
may follow. The effects of a Mustard bath, at about ninety degrees,
are singular; decided chills are felt at first throughout the whole
body, with some twitchings at times of the limbs; and later on, even
after the skin surface has become generally red, this sense of
coldness persists, until the person leaves the water, when reaction
becomes quickly established, with a glowing heat and redness of the
whole skin.

For obstinate hiccough a teacupful of boiling water should be
poured on a teaspoonful of Mustard flour, and taken when sufficiently
cool, half at first, and the other half in ten minutes if still
needed. For congestive headache a small roll of Mustard paper or
Mustard leaf may be introduced into one or both nostrils, and left
there for a minute or more. It will relieve the headache promptly,
and may perhaps induce some nose bleeding.

Admixture with vinegar checks the development of the pungent
principles of Mustard. This used to be practised for the table in
England, but is now discontinued, though some housewives add a
little salt to their made Mustard.

Claims for the introduction of Mustard at Durham in 1720, have
been raised in favour of a Mrs. Clements, but they cannot be
substantiated. Shakespeare in the _Taming of the Shrew_ makes
Grumio ask Katherine "What say you to a piece of beef and
Mustard?" and speaks, in _Henry IV_., of Poins' wit being "as thick
[379] as Tewkesbury Mustard"; whilst Fuller in his _Worthies of
England_, written only a very few years after Shakespeare's death,
says "the best Mustard in England is made at Tewkesbury in the
county of Gloucester." Coles observes (1657), "in Gloucestershire
about Teuxbury they grind Mustard seed and make it up into balls,
which are brought to London and other remote places as being the
best that the world affords." George the First restored the popularity
of Mustard by his approval of it. Prior to 1720 no such condiment as
Mustard in its present form was used at table in this country. It
is not improbable that the Romans, who were great eaters of
Mustard-seed pounded and steeped in new wine, brought the condiment
with them to our shores, and taught the ancient Britons how to prepare
it. At Dijon in France where the best mixed continental Mustard is